Farewell to Android
Klout is FarmVille for grown-ups
Does Flash matter on mobile?
What is Twitter?
After being around for a while in Europe, and according to the latest rumors, Spotify will be available stateside in a few months. While I'm sure music fans in the United States are looking forward to testing it, the truth is that all that glitters is not gold. Spotify is a great app, there's no doubt about it. We've raved about it a couple of times on this blog. But there's also a big catch to it: ads.
Spotify is currently offered in three versions: Premium (€9.99 per month), Day pass (€0.99 for 24 hours) and Free, which is ad-supported. This last version is the one that raises most controversy. I've been using Spotify for seven months now, and during this time I've noticed an increase in the number and frequency of ads. I understand Spotify needs to make money in some way, and I'm honestly willing to listen to ads from time to time if that means I can access their extensive music catalog for free. But what I don't like at all is having ads every two or three tracks. Not even standard commercial radio stations have that much advertising!
The funny thing is that I'm not the only one that has noticed this increase. The whole OnSoftware editorial team was also complaining about it, so we decided to conduct a small research project: listen to music on Spotify for a whole hour and count all the ads you get. As a result, Jon, Nick and me got seven ads each, while Tom had six and James, four. Not that bad for just 60 minutes of music. It seems that the more often you use Spotify, the more ads you get: James is almost new to the program and he only had four, while the rest of us, Spotify veterans, obtained higher scores.
And what are Spotify ads about? Well, most of them explain new features in the application or encourage you to upgrade to the Premium version. Others are about MP3 download services, or new albums and artists you can find on the program. Some of them are in English, which I find a bit out of place since we're in Spain. And the vast majority are quite poor in quality, but there's no way you can skip them: if you turn the volume down so as to not hear them, they'll be paused until you turn the volume up again.
I used to love Spotify and recommended it to all of my friends. Now I'm not so sure about it. On the one hand, it's a simple program that offers an incredible amount of music, just a click away; on the other hand, the Free version has become so ad-ridden that it's a bit too annoying to use. Sorry, but I'm back to Winamp now.
You can listen music for free like Spotify in Winamp :O ?
No. I meant I'd rather go back to Winamp and my personal collection of music than listening to new bands and loads of ads on Spotify ;)
Just use radioparadise.com - they're advert free. And if you want to donate, they're a lot worthier cause than spotify.
I completely agree... The only way to avoid ads is to "skip to next song" just before the end of yours. I am going to stop spotify I think.
But you're comparing Spotify with radio (where you have little to no control over what's being played) and winamp (where you have to provide all the music yourself). What Spotify SHOULD be compared to is playing CDs you have bought in a store. That's when you realize how ridiculously cheap and convenient a premium Spotify account is. Sure, the free account sucks, but that doesn't matter - it's a red herring. Just get the premium account! All problems solved. And don't tell me you're so poor you can't afford a measly €10 per month. If that were true, you couldn't afford an internet connection.
Have you tried MUkoTE to mute Spotify ads? It works and it's free (well... postcarware): http://cosechapropia.blogspot.com/2009/08/mukote-11.html
Yeah there are getting to be WAYYYY to many ads. The problem with buying premium is that when you stop paying you lose all your music unlike when you buy it with iTunes.
one or two adverts after EVERY song!! can't stand it anymore. most are for alexandra burke, which is doing my head in! also it has stated to play sons from the half way point and not at the beginning. spotify now sucks!
I think it's fair to say that you guys all complaining about having free music is rather silly. Yea there are some ads, but as a serious user of the service I wouldn't say there are too many. A 30 second or one minute add every 5 songs maybe, compared to two-three minutes on the radio more often? I think Spotify wins easily! ...Plus I can turn my speakers down without it noticing which is quite helpful :)
All of you saying that they have to pay for the music somehow, and that is what the ads are for. Try counting the spotify-ad to actual ads ratio. I got one actual ad per 10-15 spotify ads. It's mostly the same ads over and over "this is roberta/camilla/other voice actor from spotify telling you how great spotify has gotten because (insert cause here)". There's about 6-7 or seven of these at the moment (might be different in different countries) and I get about 4-10 commercials an hour. They come with a 1-3 song interval and I get up to three commercials per break. This means that I get maybe 35-40 minutes of actual music during an hour. And that some entire hours I can go without ever getting an actual paid ad. I use MUkoTE. Which means that they still get paid, and I don't have to listen to ads, which are more often than not louder than the music I play, and thus really jarring for me. About paying from premium. I honestly can't afford that on my student budget. "And don’t tell me you’re so poor you can’t afford a measly €10 per month. If that were true, you couldn’t afford an internet connection." That's bullshit and you know it. Those ten euro would actually go towards my internet. I have to CHOOSE! I can have internet or I can have spotify premium, and I can't see spotify helping me in my studies any time soon. The reason I still use spotify, annoying thou the ads might be, is that they actually have a good selection. I can listen to whatever I want, whenever I want (within the limits of their selection), and I can make my own play lists. And even thou the amount that the artists get is disappearingly small it's there. I can help support artists that I like at least a little. I can't afford to buy music, and they get diddly-squat if I listen to it on youtube or download it. This means something to me. I just wish that all that time they use on telling me about label search or the fact that I can buy spotify premium at 7-eleven (in great Britain, which doesn't apply to me, living in Norway and all) was actually used for ads that they actually make money on. And the endless ads for spotify premuim and label search and the "buy music on spotify button" would not have been bad at all, except for the fact that I can get three of these in a row between every song for half an hour. So yah, they need to cut down. They really do
What I don't get is why companies choose to place ads with spotify. The graphical ads in the background are ok, they don't bother that much. But the sound ads are so annoying that you just become hostile to the message as such. It really can't be well spent advertising money...
What bothers me is that the adverts are completely irrelevent to me and my taste in music. It makes me laugh when Roberta from Spotify comes on and says how Spotify chooses the right ads for the right users...blah blah blah. Rubbish. If they paid any attention to my playlists they would notice I have NEVER listened to anything like Alexandra Burke / Sean Paul / Ke$ha. I wouldn't mind the ads, if they were actually useful to me in some way. Companies who advertise with Spotify are wasting their money, but at least they are paying for me to listen to music for free.
It's true that these commercials are particular annoying becuse we are not used to commercials listening to records and many commercials kind of excuse itself, so I think they are conscious of this. Some starts their commercial with music, trying to flow into my sound scape and this works some times, when I just listening when working ("I don't remember that song, oh, commercial, yes ok"). The worst kind are some of the funny ones (they remind me of people that interrupt other peoples discussion because they want to tell them a joke. Another irritating type is the ones that say I will shortley get back to my favorite music. Number one rule for commercials in Spotify: Be short (be shorter!). Spotify must be the future of music radio, at least if music is the only thing they play. Informative music programs will of course still continue.
I get very few interruptions and these are only from Spotify themselves. I cannot see how Spotify can make money out of these. I don't think I have heard one from a commercial organisation such as you get on Classic FM and Gold.To be able to get up in seconds the music you want for free seems to me to be too good to be true.I browse through music of all kinds covering 100 years or so in programmes that would cost thousands of pounds to buy. I hope Spotify take no notice of these moaners.
This is becoming unbearable! I am quitting Spotify and going back to pirating. I have an advert after every track... No radio stations would do that!
1 song 1 ad. fuck spotify. i go to grooveshark.
The ads are not that frequent in my Spotify Free account. But they are annoying, mostly because they're not cool - simple messages about the Spotify services using a cheap microphone with the sound reflected on the office walls as if the they just asked the nearest Spotify engineer to use his/her webcam and read ad notam from a piece of paper. Make them shorter and more professional and it would sound like commercial radio = more acceptable.
Of course everybody wants a Premium account with mobile and offline listening. But not everybody wants to pay for it. Where I live, broadband Internet access costs about £20/month so adding Spotify adds 50%. With a phone, cell phone mobile and mobile broadband to go, it does cost you. Having said that, if you are an avid music listener, the Premium is worth it. Maybe on-demand Premium also would be nice - pay to get rid of the ads during the party you are throwing.
I agree the adverts are getting really out of hand. I have to listen to three different adverts for spotify premium after almost every song at the moment. its just too much!
Spotify is awesome for me... there may be an ad every 2-3 songs but these last as little as 20 seconds sometimes and a minute at most!! i think i can live with that, plus i get unlimited music for free which is the music that i have chosen to listen to. Can't complain